Quality of life and swallowing questionnaire for individuals with Parkinson's disease: development and validation

Neurological Health: Not Merely the Absence of Disease: Current Wellbeing Instruments Across the Spectrum of Neurology

OBJECTIVE

Well-being and quality of life can vary independently of disease. Instruments measuring well-being and quality of life are commonly used in neurology, but there has been little investigation into the extent in which they accurately measure wellbeing/quality of life or if they merely reflect a diseased state of an individual.

DESIGN

Systematic searches, thematic analysis and narrative synthesis were undertaken. Individual items from instruments represented in ≥ 5 publications were categorised independently, without prior training, by five neurologists and one well-being researcher, as relating to 'disease-effect' or 'Well-being' with a study-created instrument. Items were additionally categorised into well-being domains.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE, EMBASE, EMCARE and PsycINFO from 1990 to 2020 were performed, across the 13 most prevalent neurological diseases.

RESULTS

301 unique instruments were identified. Multiple sclerosis had most unique instruments at 92. SF-36 was used most, in 66 studies. 22 instruments appeared in ≥ 5 publications: 19/22 'well-being' outcome instruments predominantly measured disease effect (Fleiss kappa = .60). Only 1/22 instruments was categorised unanimously as relating to well-being. Instruments predominantly measured mental, physical and activity domains, over social or spiritual.

CONCLUSIONS

Most neurological well-being or quality-of-life instruments predominantly measure disease effect, rather than disease-independent well-being. Instruments differed widely in well-being domains examined.

Tools to assess the quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

The clinical, social, and economic implications of Parkinson's disease (PD) are significant; disability occurs leading to a low quality of life (QoL). Information on the QoL of patients with PD and studies on the relationship between QoL and motor and cognitive function are necessary for both research and clinical use to make informed decisions in healthcare and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to determine which scales are most used to assess QoL in patients with PD.

AREA COVERED

A literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Two authors independently identified eligible studies based on predefined inclusion criteria and extracted the data. Study quality and the risk of bias were assessed using the COSMIN checklist.

EXPERT OPINION

116 suitable studies were included, and 42 different instruments were identified. The most frequently used scales were the 39-items and 8-items Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) (PDQ-8). These findings suggest further investigation of existing PD outcome measures would benefit patients, researchers, and clinicians. Validated, universal outcome measures are required to allow comparisons across practice; therefore, we recommend that future researchers use a common set of outcome assessments based on the results of this review.